Is there a way to skin the user interface ? because the original is ugly to be honest.

What are the solutions for this problem ? Are there options to change colour, etc...

sorry to be so blunt, but it needs a "makeover" !

Main Entry: tact Pronunciation: \ˈtakt\Function: nounEtymology: French, sense of touch, from Latin tactus, from tangere to touch — more at tangentDate: 17971 : sensitive mental or aesthetic perception <converted the novel into a play with remarkable skill and tact>2 : a keen sense of what to do or say in order to maintain good relations with others or avoid offense

I don't want to hurt anybody's feeling!And I very much respect all the people that worked on this project. There hard passionate work is very much appreciated by me.but.With this interface you are not going to appeal to a great big audience. Which is sad because of all the hard work put in to it.

I now understand there are abilities to skin the UI. thanks for the tip. I'll look into it.

anywaythe colours don't match, for example

text is more than the buttons can handle, colour don't match

anyway, i don't want to look like i'm an xxxhole but I guess i am much more sensitive for the way the UI looks than other people. And in my point of view at this moment its not good, it's holding the product down.

The LinuxMCE is such a beautiful product , it hurts that the look of the system doesn't make a user feel that he/she is using a great program.Most of the people using these programs are not looking beyond this...and never take account of the work and effort put into it.They will have even less tact!!

Is there a group focusing on the UI ? I would like to join because my profession is industrial designer.

I'm an Italian boy (I am writing because of your nickname I guess it is too), and another friend have tried to create a different version of UI1.Of course we are not professionals but if you have a look www.linuxmce-it.com, if we can help you or work together.

Is there a group focusing on the UI ? I would like to join because my profession is industrial designer.

toniperoni I agree to some degree about your suggestions ( particularially the text being more than the buttons can handle)However your screen shots seem to all show the basic UI....have you tried the others? UI2 for example?

They are more graphically insensive interfaces but offer a much more astetically pleasing interface.

My profession is applications engineer and design and program high end products and find that the interfaceis very nice and easy to use..(granted there are some flaws like not being able to choose your own default view for media and thetext on some buttons is too much) but all in all it is a great interface that is not too complex but yet allows you to acomplisheverything the software has to offer with as little button clicks as possible.

Also keep in mind, that this skin is no longer presented by default, and has been replaced by Titanium, in the interim.

I want to replace Orbiter as part of a massive code rewrite, but I have not been able to dedicate time to this yet. I estimate this part alone will take the next two years of my life to employ all of my skills to both design the new UI, and to implement it. This alongside doing a massive port of the entire stack to MeeGo.

I tend to agree with the OP - the GUI could use some work and changing it requires a decent investment in time to learn it. Well, a re-skin isn't so bad (just changing the graphics for buttons and such), but changing the layout isn't as easy. I guess it's one of those things you sorta get used to after a while, then you see screenshots of other products and remember.. I made a go at making it look better, but quickly realized I just didn't have the time and graphic design skills to make a significant improvement so I gave up. A quick comparison between between the LinuxMCE video screen and, for example, the MythTV video screen really shows how LMCE could use improvements.

I'm sure Thom could explain the technical details why new gui design with the existing system is so cumbersome, but for now just accept it the way it is. This is the first time I've heard Thom is planning to change the orbiter, this is great news. Just for clarification for toniperoni, the gui you see is the "on screen orbiter" in LinuxMCE terms. Thom, and the other devs, have done great work in the past and I'm confident that a rewrite of the orbiter will lead to all kinds of improvements including what you see on screen.

The biggest improvement that UI2 showed, (5 Years ahead of everyone else, mind you!) was that the media is the most important aspect, where the UI is gently overlaid, and does NOT overpower what is being played.

It seems virtually every open source media center is ignoring this... to their peril.. Sorry fellas, to me, innovation is not XBMC, or MythTV, or FreeVo, or Boxee... It's the blonde at a party, skin deep, no substance.

I agree, and disagree. I'm not saying LinuxMCE should go the way of MythTV, but the whole UI gently overlaid is certainly not true either. I really like the way the main menu doesn't block the other stuff when media is playing, but go into the video menu, or audio, etc. and it blocks everything (or blends with the background).

If you want coverart and enough movies per screen it kinda has to.

Start a movie that you were previously watching and the entire screen is covered while asking to continue or not. There are plenty of places where LinuxMCE blocks whatever on-screen media is playing, some make perfect sense while others do not. While I agree that trying to copy MythTV or any of the other eye-candy UIs is not the way LinuxMCE should go, I do think there are a few areas where using at least the bulk of the screen makes sense. Possibly scaling the media to a PIP type box.

Just to be clear, I like the way LinuxMCE works. I still only use it for media, no HA stuff yet, and I'm still using LinuxMCe with no plans to switch. I'm also happy to hear you are working on re-writing the orbiter.